Anushka Sharma's Makeup in Band Baaja Baraat

 Since I have been sick and therefore stuck at home all week, I was able to catch up on my Bollywood movie watching. I have been wanting to watch Band Baaja Baraat. In a nutshell, this movie is about two University students who graduate and start a wedding planning business together, and the movie follows their masti (fun) and struggles as they build their business. I have been wanting to watching this FOREVER because I always wanted to be a wedding planner (still kinda do...but that's a whole other story):

The lead actress Anushka Sharma is a Bollywood newbie and throughout the whole movie she has an incredibly fresh and natural look. 

Of course I couldn't help but do a quickie makeup breakdown for how to achieve this fresh-faced look:

Face:

A good moisturizer like my fave MAC Lightful Ultramoisture Creme

Tinted Moisturizer

Concealer under the eyes on on red/dark spots

A natural peachy or apricot blush to give some color to the skin

A light dusting of powder

Eyes:

Fill in brows, even if you have solid eyebrows, to make them stronger and create a frame for the face

Apply a peach or golden shadow to the lid

Draw a thin line on the upper lash line with a dark brown gel or liquid liner

Line the waterline if you want to (she does this sometimes in the movie)

Curl lashes and apply black mascara

Lips:

Apply a sheer pink stain to the lips and top with clear gloss, or apply a lightly colored pink gloss to the lips

What do you think of Anushka's look in the movie?

MAC Mickey Contractor FOTD #2

After my recent look with the neutrals, I wanted to try a look using some of the brights from the MAC Mickey Contractor collection. The two bright shadows I used were Saffron and Rani.

 Saffron eyeshadow, Rani eyeshadow

I chose these two because Orange and Pink are two of the most common colors used for Indian ethnic wear. A lot of brides opt for brighter pinks, and pink-yellow or pink-orange outfits for their wedding reception. 

Here I used Expensive Pink (permanent shade) on the inner lid, Saffron on the middle of the lid, and Rani on the outer lid. I didn't really emphasize the crease. I used the same color gradient on the lower lid.

The shadows are very vibrant and easy to blend. Unfortunately my little pocket camera isn't the best so you can't really see how vibrant the colors are.

Don't mind my hair here....I was just playing around with the look so I didn't bother getting completely ready. I have a light touch of bronzer on my cheeks and on my lips I am wearing Yash lipstick topped with clear gloss. I love the lipstick shade because it is nude but not the super pale, sickly looking nude.

What do you think of these products? Did you get anything from the Mickey Contractor collection?

Siahi -Yes It Is All It's Cracked Up To Be (And More MAC Mickey Contractor Products)

Can I tell you how excited I was that Bollywood makeup artist extraordinaire Mickey Contractor was doing a collection with MAC! Almost as excited as I was when I got engaged!

Ok, maybe not really. But it was close! I am a HUGE fan of Mickey Contractor and all his work on the gorgeous actresses in Bollywood.

Now that I have some of the products in my hands, I am going CRAZY!!! Being Indian, I can totally see how this collection makes sense....they are the epitomy of what most Indians like when they are getting their makeup done. It's either neutrals, a la the eyeshadow quad and lipsticks, or brights, like the new shadows and fluidlines.

Over the next few days, I will let you in on my faves, starting with my fave piece of makeup: eyeliner.

MAC Fluidline in Siahi from the Mickey Contractor Collection 

You can use this gel liner and draw a thin line for a more opaque, precise look, or smudge it out to get more of a brighter, smoky look. You can even use this all over the lid (blended well) as a base for teal/blue/black shadows. All I have to say is I might be seeing teal for the next few months.

In the pic above I used Siahi to draw a thin line on my upper lash line. This is definitely a more natural look, but I can see myself pairing it with golds, creams, and blue shadows for a more dramatic effect.

What do you think of Siahi? What products are you lemming from the Mickey Contractor Collection?

Reader Request - Rani Mukherjee Makeup Breakdown

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, with the Thanksgiving holiday.....shopping.....cooking...and, oh yeah, that little thing called work......I didn't have time to sit down and converse with you!

So I recently received a request to do a makeup breakdown for Bollywood Acress Rani Mukherjee's look in the photo below, so here it is:

Since Rani is attending a special event, she has pretty heavy makeup. Here's  how you can achieve this look at home:

Face:

1. Moisturize skin. My all-time fave is the MAC Lightful Deep Ultramoisture Creme.
2. Apply a primer without SPF. My current fave is the Stila One Step Correct.
3. Apply a medium-full coverage foundation that matches your neck and jawline. Again, if you are wearing this look out for an event where you will be photographed, try to choose a foundation without SPF. I like MAC Studio Fix, or Make Up For Ever's HD foundation.
4. Apply concealer under the eyes and to trouble spots. I am totally in love with the new MAC Pro Long Wear Concealer. Ah-Mah-Zing!!!
5. Apply a bronzer that is just a couple shades darker than your skin tone to the hollows of your cheeks. You don't want to go too dark. This step should just add a bit of depth and contour to the face.
6. In the photo, Rani is wearing her blush closer to her hairline than the apples of the cheeks, but I prefer to wear it on the apples of the cheeks. Wherever you apply it, use a peach toned blush without any shimmer. A good one would be MAC Cubic Powder Blush.
7. Top off the look with a dusting of your favorite face powder. Right now I LOVE the Smashbox Halo Hydrating Perfecting Powder (review coming soon!)

Eyes: This is wear the drama is so feel free to have fun!

1. Fill in brows with a shadow that matches your hair tone, to create a strong frame for the eyes.
2. Apply a base to the eyelid and up into the crease. Use a nude if that is all you have. If you have a darker base like MAC's Blackground Paint Pot, that's even better to help enhance the smoky colors.
3. Use a grey shadow like MAC Knight Divine and shade the entire lid, going slightly into the crease.
4. Take a shadow color that matches your skin tone, swirl a crease brush in it one or two times, and apply lightly to the crease. You want to blend out the grey shadow so it looks like it gets progressively lighter as you move up the eye. 
5. Highlight the brow bone with a non-shimmery, vanilla-y highlight color like MAC Vanilla.
6. Line the top eye lid with a gel or cream eyeliner like Bobbi Brown's Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink.
7. Line the lower lid with a long-wearing black eye pencil like Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero and make sure the liner meets the end of the line that you drew on the top lid, creating a smooth line all around the eye.
8. Take an angled shadow brush like the MAC 208 and swipe it in a black eyeshadow like MAC Carbon, and trace along the liner on the top lid, over the gel liner, using small, short strokes to set the gel liner and soften the line, so it is not harsh or sharp. Repeat on lower lash line.
9. Take a clean smudge brush like the MAC 214 and smudge the shadow on both lash lines to smoke it out. You want the black to be darkest at the lash line and fade outwards.
10. Use your favorite kohl liner to line the water line. Blink a few times to transfer the color to the top water line (the tight line) and then add re-trace the lower water line to ensure the color is dark.
11. Curl your eyelashes and top with your favorite mascara.
12. Add false lashes if you want more oomph. 

Lips:

1. Line lips with a neutral or my lips but better lip pencil. I like Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencil in Wallflower. 
2. Fill in lips with a natural looking pick lipstick like MAC Viva Glam V.
3. Add a clear or coordinating lip gloss to top of the look.

There you have it! BTW, have you had a chance to enter my giveaway for a free $25 giftcard to use on Apothica.com?

Deepika Padukone Makeup Breakdown

One of my family friends in India is pretty well connected and was telling me how Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone is a desi (Indian) girl next door. She eats real food and actually gets hungry, she doesn't spend every last waking second at the gym, and she is pretty down-to-earth. And another thing, she has natural beauty. A lot of actresses rely on the magic that is makeup in order to keep up their image. Deepika looks great even bare-faced.

That inspired me to read a bit more about Deepika Padukone and in doing so, I came across some photos of her from the Cannes Film Festival this year.

She definitely has a hot body, but I think her hair and makeup are absolutely gorgeous:

Her makeup is simple yet elegant, and is appropriate for everyday and a fancy event. Here is how to create the makeup:

Experiences Shopping for Indian Bridal Wear

As you may have read in a previous post, one of the reasons I went to India in January was to do my wedding shopping. And by wedding shopping, I mean buy my bridal outfits. Of course, we had to buy other things like gifts, and items used during the ceremony, but the largest and most fun purchases were the outfits I am going to wear for the wedding reception and ceremony.

Traditionally, in the Gujurati (the type of Indian I am) culture, we wear a Panetar Saree, which is a white saree with a red border. A saree consists of wearing a petticoat skirt, a blouse, and the saree itself, which is 6 meters of fabric draped around the body. Examples of Panetars are pictured below:

Then for the reception, we wear a Chaniya Choli or Lengha (skirt) type outfit. This consists of an embroidered skirt, blouse, and a dupatta, which is a wide scarf (approx 1m x 2m) that can b draped around the body in various fashions:
So my plan was to follow the tradition. I tried on a few Panetars, and quickly realized the style just did not suit me. I looked twice my size, and I looked twice my age. Not exactly the look I was going for as a bride. So then I ended up mixing the traditional and modern and getting a Panetar style Chaniya Choli, so it is a Chaniya Choli style but in white and red. I am not going to post pics of the outfits I purchased. The first time I want anyone (other than my parents) to see the outfits will be as I walk down the aisle on my wedding day. =)

I did purchase my outfits in Mumbai, though I looked in a couple different cities in India. Mumbai is the largest, most populated city, and can be called the Paris of India. All the celebrities live in Mumbai, all the hottest styles are first seen in Mumbai and then filter through the country, and the best selection of clothing is in Mumbai. Since the best of the best merchandise is in Mumbai, it is also more expensive than other cities. All this I have just stated is not merely my observation, but a fact. Every family member, friend, shop owner admitted that the styles I would see in Mumbai, I would not find anywhere else in the country. And they were right. A girl I met in a shop in Mumbai had already bought her wedding outfit from Ahmedabad, and was looking only for her reception. But she liked the merchandise in Mumbai so much that she ended up buying a new wedding outfit!

That being said, here are a few tips I would like to share when shopping for bridal wear in India:

1. Try and go to Mumbai or Delhi (the capital of India) first and check out the selection. Then go to other cities, suburbs and all, and look at the styles and prices. You can compare the styles and prices with the larger cities and get an idea of what you want and what will fit in your budget. If you find something you like in the smaller cities, purchase it. If not, you can go back to Mumbai or Delhi and get whatever you like.
2. Have an open mind about what you like. If you are dead set on a certain color or cut, chances are you will fall in love with something different, and then be confused because it is not what you originally wanted. Try on as many outfits as possible, including the colors and cuts that are not your number 1 choice. You will be surprised as to what you find flattering on yourself.
3. Take into consideration how your outfit will look in pictures. The most popular colors in bridal wear are red and gold. Everywhere I went, people kept showing me gold outfits. I was open to it, until I realized that it just doesn't look flattering on my skin tone in pictures. My skin tone is too similar to the gold color of bridal wear, and the monotone look just doesn't look very nice. I didn't want my skin to blend in with my outfit, I wanted some contrast, so I went with color. Most places will not let you take pictures of their outfits, because they don't want pics in the wrong hands and risk having the styles copied, but if you explain to them you want to see what the outfit will look like in pictures, they will let you take a couple, as long as you delete them right away.
4. Remember to take a camera with you. Why? Re-read #3 above.
5. Take a few people with you. You will definitely need some opinions on what does and does not look good. It is sooo easy to get confused once you wear a few different outfits and like all of them. Having others point out things you may not realize, will help in the decision making process.
6. If possible, take some locals with you. They will know the best shops and it will be easier to bargain. A lot of bigger shops are fixed price nowadays, especially in Mumbai, so as much as you try, you won't even be able to drop the price by 1 rupee.
7. Have fun! This is your bridal wear after all, and you (hopefully) won't be shopping for bridal wear every again, so make the most of the experience!

Another thing I want to share is for those of you who are considering buying your bridal clothes in your country and not in India, I have some interesting info for you. The following outfit, as all the other pics in this post, are from a well known store in Mumbai called Pramanik.

The outfit above is listed online for $532. I saw a very similar outfit, similar type of embroidery, same color, same style, at a store in Cerritos, California (also known as the Little India of Los Angeles) for $5100. I am not joking. That is almost a 10X markup! People think its crazy to fly halfway around the world to shop for bridal wear, but once you learn the price difference, it really makes sense to pay the $1500 airfare to fly to India. Even if you and your mom flew, that would be around $3000, and you bought a $1000 outfit, it still comes out to be cheaper than the one outfit I saw in LA. And if you went to India, you would be buying more than one outfit, so all together, if you add up the savings of everything you could purchase there, it really comes out to be cheaper than buying things in the States.

By now you might be tired of my ramblings so I will end it here. If you have any questions about wedding shopping in India, please feel free to email me!

MAC Spring Color Forecast Review and Look #1

I was playing around with a few of the products from the MAC Spring Color Forecast collection and here is the outcome:

Here I used one of the new pigments (desribed below) on the lid, the new Nanogold eyeshadow very lightly on my browbone, and Bronze eyeshadow (permanent shade, not from this release) in the crease.

On my eyes I used the Crushed Metal Pigment: Stack 2! I used the gold color, which is the one that is open in the picture below:

I love the gold but I also think the champagne colors are absolutely gorgeous! The green one is nice too, though I won't use that as often. These are really neat because you get 4 colors packed in one. You can mix and match how you want to organize them, either as 2 and 2, 3 and 1, or even all 4 together:

Here is a swatch of all the colors. The first pic is blurry, but shows the colors better, so I decided to include it anyways.

Pictures don't do these justice. They are more shimmery in real life and very pigmented. The product itself is a mix between the chunky solar bits and the regular pigments. As you can see in the pic, they aren't as chunky as the solar bits, so they are easier to work with, but you still have to kind of crush them before you apply to the skin. I loved the colors and the fact that you can use them for a variety of uses, so I personally would recommend this stack. However, if you don't like spending time with a product to make it work, then these aren't for you. For me, it just adds to the artsy part of doing my makeup.

I also played around with the Blush Ombre in Ripe Peach. Let me just say that I LOVE this product. I love blushers and this one is so gorgeous! The powder is so finely milled and it applies so smoothly. It stays on for several hours, which is a plus since blush is usually the first to fade. The product itself blends soooo smoothly, more so than MAC's normal powder blushes. I am even tempted to go get the pink one now. The brown neutral one would make a great bronzer, but I don't use bronzer as much so I might pass on that.

You can use the different parts of the blush to get the individual color, or you can swirl the color to get a combo. The swatches in the pic below go in the following order from left to right: all colors swirled together, the center of the blush, the dark pink side, and the light gold side.

This blush gives such a gorgeous, healthy, coral glow. In the pic below I used the colors swirled together:

You can't see very well, but I am wearing "O" lipstick with Love Nectar lustreglass (my favorite) on top. I have also been trying out a new skin product mixed with my foundation...and so far I like it. Will tell you more about that soon.

What do you think about the new collection? What are you planning to get, if anything?

My India Beauty Must Haves

I wanted to take my whole makeup kit with me to India.....but in reality I had to pare down what I was going to take with me, and boy was that hard! I did two edits: first I picked all the pieces that I wanted to take with me, and then from that, I cut the number of products in half and took only what would be enough to get by. I took no more than two lip products and cheek products, and managed to limit myself to 1 foundation, 1 powder, the essential makeup brushes, and a few other must-haves. From the products that I did take with me, here are the items I used the most:

First off, since I was attending the wedding events, I really wanted my whole shadow kit with me, but I was able to pick a few (hey, for me, this was a few...) of my favorite colors and assemble them in a travel friendly palette. I used a MAC 15 pan palette and took out the pan separator. This was super easy to do and I still have it if I want to use it again. The entire bottom of the palette is magnetic so the shadow refills will stick anywhere. Thus, I was able to get 25 shadows into a 15 shadow palette. A lot of makeup artists do this to save space and I think its a great idea.

On the left is the MAC Fast Response Eye Cream. This tiny tube is a lifesaver because it works great at depuffing the eye area and making you look fresh. I used this a lot on the trip because I got very little sleep and often woke up looking like I partied too hard....which some nights I did. =) The tube on the bottom is the Korres Ginger and Vitamins Foundation. I reviewed this before and again I must tell you how much I love this. It is sooo natural looking and I really think the vitamins in the product are so good for your skin. The smog and contamination in India can wreak havoc on your skin and I really thought that by using this everyday my skin looked and felt healthier than in normally does in India.

These were my most used eye products: MAC Blacktrack fluidline and Paint Pot in Rubenesque. I really like this better than UD Primer Potion because I can wear it on its own and I really think it lasts longer.

On top is the MAC Cream Color Base in Bronze, and this was my perfect cheek color both for a natural look and for more drama in the evenings. I think this may be a PRO color now, but you may be able to find it in some MAC freestanding stores. In the swatch below (left) you can see how dark it is, but it sheers out to a more natural color (swatch below right). I feel that cream cheek colors tend to last longer and look better in India. For some reason, powder blushers look too streaky when I am in India. I can't explain it but I swear it's true.

Also, I used the MAC Pro Longwear Lipcolor in Stuck on You. It is a berry-ish mauve color and is perfect for nights out because it is dark enough to add drama, but not overly dramatic that people notice your lips and then you (y'all know what I mean). I usually only wear this with Indian clothes because the colors are so bright that I need a bit of a darker lip color. Plus, this is long lasting and I needed that for the wedding events. This formula is very drying so I don't recommend it for daily use, but for special events, it rocks my boat!

I'm still not over my jet-lag, and I still need to upload the rest of my wedding pics. When I get around to doing that I will post a few more. Right now, I am just looking forward to the weekend....almost there!!!!

Manish Arora Makeup for Spring/Summer 2010

I've been feeling a lil down and out today, so I've just been surfing the web this evening and just having some alone time to myself. My soon-to-be mother-in-law (MIL) is not the nicest person in the world (surprise, surprise...I mean, does anyone really like their MIL?) and she is causing some drama for my fiance and I.

Seems like a good weight-loss technique, yeah?

Anyhoo, I was surfing the MAC Pro website and noticed that they already have the Spring/Summer 2010 trend looks from the runway shows. The winter has just started here in California (yes, 40 degree temperature is winter for us), so I am still clinging to my smoky eyes and dark lips, but since one of the trend looks was from Indian designer Manish Arora (he did the Manish Arora for MAC collection last fall, that sold out online in like 30 seconds), I just had to do a post on that.

Here is how you can achieve his minimalist look, per the MAC Pro website:

MANISH ARORA

"Keeping the make-up quite bare the emphasis is placed on pearly skin texture and nude features. I wanted the balance created by the understated makeup and over-the-top face accessory to have a futuristic feel." - Kabuki

EYES:
M·A·C Pro Water Base Mixing Medium and Pro White Frost Pigment - applied in a "c" shape to the outer corners of the eyes.

SKIN:
Studio Sculpt Foundation- applied as a base to the face as a whole and then in darker shades under the cheekbones, and down the sides of the nose to contour.
M·A·C Pro Water Base Mixing Medium and Pro White Frost Pigment - placed down the center of the nose, on the chin and over the cupid's bow of the lips as a highlight.

LIPS:
M·A·C Pro Lip Erase in Dim- applied to the lips to block the natural coloring of the lips.
M·A·C Pro Water Base Mixing Medium and Pro White Frost Pigment - applied to the center of the lips as a highlight.

It's so non-traditional that I am tempted to try this out myself just to see how it looks. What are you faves for spring and summertime?

Stila's Indian Summer Collection

Stila has released their new Indian Summer Collection for Summer 2009. The colors are meant to give you that exotic Indian look and the packaging even comes with a bindi on it. I am obviously all over this because of the colors, but in my opinion, they could have done a lot more with the packaging, I mean, seriously I could have just taken any ol' palette and stuck on one of the zillion bindis I have at home. Aside from that, I am interested in trying out the new 24kt smudge pot in black noir. It's black with gold sparkles in it and you know I am all over anything with sparkles! Will keep you posted as to how the colors fare on this stuff. Stay tuned!